Critic Watch: Two Lovers

Released just last week, James Gray's film, Two Lovers, has been welcomed with a large amount of praise. Not every critic, however, holds the film in such high regard. Leonard Kraditor, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is in a severely depressed state after a recent bad turn in his life. While trying to recover, he meets two women, both who seem infatuated by him. With this comes Leonard's, and the movie's, main conflict. Does he choose Michelle, a woman he knows nearly nothing about, or Sandra, the woman his parent's are pushing upon him.

In a review by Owen Gleiberman, who writes for Entertainment Weekly, the movie is greatly praised for its unconventional handling of an all too personal topic. Giving it a high score of 91 out of 100, Gleiberman's main point is that Two Lovers is a movie deserving of its classification as a "70's movie". By a 70's movie he means that the characters are unguarded and freely display their raw emotions. This, he feels is one of the movie's greates qualities.

The most negative review, giving the movie a 38 out of 100, was a review in the New York Post, written by Kyle Smith. Smith thinks the exact opposite about the movie's emotional plot. he finds it sappy, boring, and unimaginitve. He describes the movie as "limping" along, not generating any interest in character or plot.

Elizabeth Weitzman, from the New York Daily News gives a mixed score of 60 out of 100. The main point in her review is the aacting of Joaquin Pheonix. She believes his character is a reflection of real life, saying that he is, "Nothing, in other words, like most characters in movies, and everything like the ones we meet in real life." This realistic portrayal might not be for everyone, she states, but it is definitely the reason behind the film's appeal.

In another positive score of 75 out of 100, Claudia Puig of USA Today raves mainly about the superb cast. While nothing really happens plotwise, the characters andtheir struggles are interesting enough to carry the story. The movie is very sombre overall, but the story is very character driven, which works well thanks to the cast.

Giving the movie an 80 out 100, Ray Bennett from The Hollywood Reporter feels the movie works overall, due to a variety of factors. He says that there are no surprises or big shocks in the movie. Usually the viewer would associate no suprises to a bad movie, but for Two Lovers, it works, and surprisingly well.

In most reviews, critics greatly praise the nearly completely character driven story as touching, real life drama. Despite some negative feedback, the cast and the deeply emotional story is enough to keep viewers' attention.